We've updated our Privacy and Cookies Policy

We've made some important changes to ourPrivacy and Cookies policy and we want you to know what this means for you and your data. This webiste uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

News

Kelvin Hughes celebrates 70 Years of Radar

Details

24 May 2017

It’s 70 years since Kelvin Hughes installed the very first Type 1 radar on a newly constructed trawler based in Grimsby. The Rinovia was one of the first oil-burning steam trawlers and was the first British trawler to be fitted with radar. Many more approval-ready sets were also installed before the critical type-approval was granted by the UK Ministry of Transport in 1948. Kelvin Hughes was the first company to gain this certification.

As part of its celebrations of this 70th anniversary, Kelvin Hughes has produced the next edition in their history series, which is also being published into a highly illustrated, souvenir booklet entitled; “70 Years of Radar”.

This has been primarily written by William Wallis, unofficial historian and Technical Publications Manager at Kelvin Hughes, who has spent many years of his spare time researching the history of the company – a company whose history descends over 250 years, back to Thomas Hughes, a Master of the Clock-Makers Company and William Thomson who became Lord Kelvin, a prolific inventor and one of the world’s greatest scientists.

Before the introduction of radar, ships relied on navigation methods and equipment that had not changed for centuries. Kelvin Hughes has completely transformed that marine world, and gone beyond it. In 2006, the company confirmed its position as the industry technology leader when it launched SharpEye™, the world’s first affordable and commercially available solid-state radar transceiver.

Not only is SharpEye™ used by more than 25 of the world’s navies for navigation, helicopter control and situational awareness but also by a wide range of organisations – from CNI installations to wildlife reserves – and applications for providing border surveillance and detecting drones.

As the 70 Years of Radar booklet says, whatever the future holds, Kelvin Hughes will continue to give a new set of eyes to an ever-expanding new world.